One of the big advantages of overnight hiking is the opportunity to get out of the city and away from civilisation and with that you pick up some really amazing night skies. I must admit I know very little about the night skies and given the sheer number of constellations, stars, satellites, and planets in the skies its nice to know when you see something really amazing that you can work out what it is. My go to app over the past three yeas has been the SkyView App and while I started out with SkyView Lite, the free version, I very quickly shelled out the $2.99 price tag and opted for full version and haven’t looked back.
In most cases the only object in the night sky that I can be really guaranteed of identifying is the moon and every so often when one of the planets is really bright I like to know what it is. I must admit this app even shows objects like the Hubble Space telescope and the various space junk such and rock bodies that are floating around overhead.
One of the strange things about this app is that you can use it inside or during the daytime and it will tell you whats there even if you can’t see it. I recently recorded an interview with a professional photographer who uses this app to ensure the fine details such as the exact position/angle of his for his tent for twilight and evening shots to ensure that the correct celestial body is in shot at the right time.
So if you are interested in knowing what’s above your head when you are out and about during the night, camping or not, then this app is the one to try. If you aren’t sure you want to spend the AUD $4.99 RRP then try out the free version first and see how you go. At over 1.7 million downloads for the paid app, and over 9 million downloads for the free app worldwide they must be doing something right.
If you want to find out more about the night skies then this is the app for you
At the time this review was published the SkyView App cost is AUD $4.99RRP and can be downloaded through the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store
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The SkyView app logo
International Space Station and Camelopardalis constellation. This screen shot shows the position of the Space Station at 8:37pm AEDT on 17 November 2019 as seen from Canberra, Australia. The image also shows the trajectory that the space station is taking
This image shows the position of Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn
Jupiter detail
Mars Mercury and Libra Constellation
Night vision option so you don’t destroy your night vision
This review was done by product purchased by Australian Hiker
21 June 2024